The Merrimack Manufacturing Company was incorporated in 1822 by Nathan Appleton, Patrick Tracy Jackson, Kirk Boott, Warren Dutton, Paul Moody, and John W. Boott, among others. Land near the Pawtucket Falls (in what was then East Chelmsford) was selected as the most suitable location for water-powered manufacturing. The first acts of MMC were to construct a dam across the Merrimack River, to improve the locks and canals, and to construct a new canal. MMC was established to introduce calico-printing to the United States (though two other manufacturing companies may have succeeded in doing so first), and it was the first company to use cylinder rollers for printing calico. MMC’s first mill was established in 1823. Three additional mill buildings were erected in 1824. Eventually, MMC had eight mill buildings in addition to a number of other structures. The presence of MMC helped attract settlers and the community became a new town, Lowell, in 1826. In 1900, a new plant, which produced lawns and printed cloths, was established in Huntsville, Alabama. The Lowell plant was known for plain and fancy cottons, corduroys, velveteens, and blended yarn constructions. In 1938, MMC consolidated, auctioning off real estate, machinery, and equipment in Lowell, and it ceased operations in 1957.

According to The Bay State Monthly in 1884, MMC was the oldest and also the largest company in the city in terms of the number of operatives employed, the amount of cloth produced, and the size of the mill’s chimney. It was considered the “oldest integrated cotton textile operation still extant in the U.S.” by America’s Textile Reporter when it ceased operations in 1957. Among its officers were Superintendents of the Mills John Clark and Isaac Hinckley, from 1833 to 1848, and from 1850 to 1865, respectively; Superintendents of the Print Works Kirk Boott, Allen Pollock, and John D. Prince, in 1822, 1823 to 1826, and 1826 to 1855, respectively; and Treasurers Kirk Boott (until 1837) and Ebenezer B. Chadwick (ca. 1838 – 1854). The Treasurers of MMC were also the General Agents and were considered the chief executive officers.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

“Absolute auction by order of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company at Lowell, Mass. Of a part of the machinery and equipment now in its Lowell plant.” Boston: Samuel T. Freeman & Co., 1938.

“For sale machinery and supplies…from carded-combed and weave mill located at Merrimack Manufacturing Co., Lowell, Mass.” Lowell, Mass.: Frank G. W. McKittrick Co., [1958?].

Illustrated history of Lowell and vicinity. Lowell, Mass.: Courier-Citizen Co., 1897.

“An important sale of real estate at public auction to the highest bidders comprising 24 dwellings, 1 building lot, valuable modern industrial real estate of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company at Lowell, Mass.” Boston: Samuel T. Freeman & Co., 1938. “Lowell,” The Bay State Monthly, I (3): 161-200 (March 1884).

“The Merrimack,” America’s Textile Reporter, LXXII (4): 1, 27-28, 38 (Jan. 23, 1958).

Merrimack Manufacturing Company. Report of the committee of the proprietors of the Merrimack Manufacturing Company appointed to examine into the affairs of said company; and the report of the directors’ committee in relation to that report. Boston: J. H. Eastburn’s Press, 1861.

Merrimack Manufacturing Company. Presenting Merrimack Manufacturing Company. Huntsville, Ala.: Merrimack Manufacturing Co., [ca. 1943?].

Stone, O. L. History of Massachusetts industries, vol. 1. Boston: The S. J. Publishing Co., 1930.